Another Thought on Lent

Today, I did pretty well with my Lenten promises! I even sat in Baskin Robbins and watched everyone else eat ice cream without touching one bite myself! (Oh, and later, Landon handed me his half eaten "Brown Cow" popsicle and ran off to play and I didn't even sneak one nibble!) (I did come dangerously close to deciding to change what I was giving up, though--Shhh!)I also said another Rosary tonight (yay me!) and I wanted to sit down and post a few Lent-related thoughts before they felt less significant than they do right now.

Every year in preparation for Easter, we hear the story of the Passion of Christ--We listen to the little play at Mass on Good Friday and we even have Mel Gibson's movie. All of it gives a pretty good picture of what happened when Jesus was crucified, but tonight I felt it from a mother's perspective, imagining what Mary must have felt while it was all happeneing, and it was horrible! JUST IMAGINE (especially those of you with little boys) what it would be like to watch helplessly as your child (at any age--even 33) is tortured and killed!! Imagine that she agreed to go through with the whole thing in the beginning knowing she'd have to live through that!! I don't think I could have done it...It makes me sick to even think about it...and it certainly sheds a new light on all of the things I've half-listened to and half-understood in my life as a cradle Catholic. I'm sorry to be so depressing, but, as Catholics, we have a deep devotion to Mary and maybe this is a good refresher on WHY. The devotions I read with my rosary (a thought for each little prayer) were all about the Passion tonight and the reality struck me out of nowhere. Just thought I'd mention it since I promised to blog all of my Lenten experiences for you! Any thoughts? :o)